Night Terrors
by JeremyHopper
Summary: When the gang starts seeing halusunations, XANA seems to be the suspect.
1. False Alarm

It was morning. Jeremy had just woken up, and Ulrich was coming to. Odd was snoring.

"Come on guys, get up! It's a XANA attack!"

Ulrich groaned, got up and squinted at Jeremy. "What is it now," he groggily asked.

"My computer just turned off! Come see!"

Ulrich followed Jeremy to his room past all the dorms where people where probably still asleep. As they should be. It was 6:00 am and the next class was at 8. But Jeremy always got up early, but stayed up late working on materialization for Aelita. He was worried about Jeremy. Yesterday he fell asleep during class. A couple weeks ago he was so groggy during gym that Jim took him to the infirmary, but the doctor diagnosed him with, well, drowsiness.

They came to Jeremy's room.

"See! Look," Jeremy pointed to the blank screen of his computer.

Ulrich looked around, and moved to the computer. He plugged it in.

"Uhhh…" Jeremy blushed.

Ulrich turned to leave. "You know Jeremy, you need more sleep."

"But I'm working on something very important!"

"What could be so important that you fall asleep in class?"

"Well, it's-"

"Or get hit with a soccer ball?"

"Hey, that ball was going really fast!"

"2 miles an hour."

"Ulrich, XANA's going to launch an attack!"

Odd suddenly came in the room.

"Carpet tacking? What's that about carpet tacking? I love carpet tacking!"

Ulrich looked back at Odd, rolled his eyes, and turned back to Jeremy.

"Yeah, what about that?"

"Carpet tacking?"

"No Odd! XANA Attacking!"

Jeremy sat on his chair and turned to the computer. He pressed a few buttons and a diagram listing energy output of something came up.

Jeremy turned back to the boys. "I've been working on a new program that reads the output energy of XANA, to know when he's going to attack-"

Odd put up a finger. "Like a pre-shock reader."

Jeremy kept a serious face. "Yeah. And by this diagram, I figure that XANA's launching an attack-"

Odd and Ulrich exclaimed simultaneously, "WHAT!"

"Yumi! It's 7:58, and your gonna be late!"

Yumi Ishiyama got dressed. "Okay! Be right down!"

Thump! Thump! Thump! Down the stairs, grabbed her books and a celery stick and Yumi was on her way. A couple people walked by. Then suddenly,

"Ahhhh! Help me, somebody!" A man in a suit ran by her headlong towards the police station. She looked where he had been running from. All she saw was a couple people looking at the man running away.

Besides that, nothing.

Yumi said one word.

"Huh?" 


	2. Signs

Odd, Ulrich and Jeremy were in class. It was 9:01, and the period was almost over.

"Does any one know the answer to the question on the board?"

Z 256

Y p x 5Z

X Y2

Riiiiiiiiiing!

Everybody jumped at the sound and started moving to the door.

"Remember, do pages 1 through 5 and be sure to…"

Mrs. Hertz's trailed off as Jeremy and Ulrich with Odd to their rooms to think. On the way there, Odd was talking about some new song by some band (Jeremy didn't care,) when suddenly they heard a terrible scream.

"Ahhhh! Ouh!"

Ulrich instinctively ran to the, unfortunately, locked door.

He turned and twisted the handle when finally he tried to kick it open. With the door not opening they kept listening to the sound of a girl shrilly screaming, when they heard a shatter, a thud and it suddenly stopped. They ran down stairs to get Jim. He got the keys and opened the door to find a seemingly ransacked room and a shattered window.

"Uhhh, guys?"

Odd motioned for them to come to the window. They looked down to find Naomi lying on the ground below, out cold.

"So what happened in class guys?"

Yumi, Jeremy, Ulrich and Odd were sitting on a bench in recess talking as usual. Odd was exasperated. "Who cares about class? Naomi was thrown out her dorm window!"

Yumi was flabbergasted. "You sure she didn't jump?" Ulrich agreed. "Maybe something, like freaked her out, huh?" Odd was incredulous. "Obviously you don't know Naomi. She's happy! And she's my age! Besides what could freak her out like that? Huh?"

"I'll check with Aelita. It might be a XANA attack." Jeremy waved goodbye as he walked to his room.

Tower. Tower. Tower. Tower.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Ha! Just as I suspected! XANA has activated a tower!"

Jeremy was uneasy.

"Is something wrong, Jeremy?"

Aelita's gentle voice made him less worried, but he was still puzzled.

"Have you noticed anything in Lyoko?

"No. Everything's quiet here."

"Well I just detected an activated tower."

Bump! Bump!

Aelita now seemed worried as well.

"Now that you mention it, I think I just heard XANA!"

"I'll go tell Yumi."

Creeeeeak!

Jeremy whipped around from the sound of his door opening to find the door, oddly, closed.

"Aelita confirmed that XANA had woken up. It gave me the heebie-jeebies, when, to top it off, I heard the door open."

Yumi seemed a little skeptical. "And you didn't see anything?"

"Nope."

"But it was past lunch time and before lights out, so Jim shouldn't have been bothering anybody."

Jeremy relaxed. "Sorry, it's just-"

He sighed. "I'm just a little uneasy."

"Don't worry about it," Yumi smiled and put on her backpack. "XANA's thrown a lot of weird stuff at us. It's enough to make anybody edgy."

Jeremy got up. "I guess so." 


	3. How it must have Started

Jeremy went to tell Ulrich about everything.

"Hey Ulrich. Guess what-"

Ulrich interrupted him absentmindedly. "Jeremy-"

"Wait a sec, in my room-"

"Seen anything weird up there?"

"But… like what," Jeremy asked inquisitively.

Ulrich looked around.

"I've been hearing things. Jim said he saw Naomi walking through the halls-"

"Isn't she bedridden?"

"Yes. And when Jim went to the Infirmary to report about Naomi, he saw her in her bed still unconscious."

Jeremy almost laughed. "Ghost stories?"

Ulrich seemed the same. "I know! Pretty crazy, but there's more, lots more! There are strange things happening in this school!"

Jeremy told Ulrich about the tower, but kept the part about the door a secret.

"I'm going to the factory." Jeremy added, and got up.

"I'll go with you." Ulrich got up as well.

"Okay then, come on!"

Odd was sitting in his room. He was reading his comic, when suddenly he heard someone knocking on his door.

He didn't even look up. "Yes?"

A long pause with no answer. He looked up at the door.

"Yes?"

Still no answer.

He turned back to his comic.

Another few knocks. Now he was annoyed.

"Who is it?"

He turned to the door for a couple seconds, and kept reading.

Knock, Knock!

Odd got up from his comics and walked towards the door.

Knock, Knock!

"Yes!"

He opened the door to see an empty hallway.

"Sissy's work no doubt," He thought. "Doesn't she have anything better to do?"

He closed it and walked to his bed again to read.

Knock, Knock!

He ignored it.

Knock, Knock!

Ignoring.

Knock, Knock!

"Who in Superman's name is it?"

Jeremy opened the door and walked in.

"Superman's name? No matter, do you have a moment?"

Odd threw his comic away.

"Sure."

"I think we've got a problem."

Odd looked at him. "Yeah? Wadaya mean?

Jeremy sat on the bed.

"Well, Jim and the Principal have been getting unusual reports. People behaving strangely, others hearing sounds that aren't there…"

Odd squinted as Ulrich came in (Not because of Ulrich, but because of the things Jeremy were saying.) "Are you talking about hallucinations?"

Jeremy greeted Ulrich-"Hey Ulrich."-and continued.

"In some cases, in others just erratic behavior."

Ulrich obviously had been listening, for he asked Jeremy, "Can you track down some element that might be responsible?"

"No, but everything started when XANA activated the tower." 


	4. The Cause

Ulrich walked towards the door for his dorm. "Guys, we have to deactivate it before this gets any worse. But first, we gotta go to bed for some sleep."

Odd smiled at Jeremy. "Don't we all? Jeremy, get some sleep."

The lights suddenly turned off.

Odd's dog climbed into his lap. "Power outage. The usual. You go to sleep too Kiwi!"

The next day at gym, Jim was coaching soccer practice.

"Now, everybody get in an orderly line. Time for pegs!"

Someone in a soccer goalie shirt got in front of the net.

"You go first, Tamiya!"

Tamiya looked really jittery. "Ok."

She just kinda stood there for a while, rubbing her neck like she was hot.

Jim asked, "Is there a problem, Tamiya?"

She pointed to her head, shaking her hands. "I can't seem to remember how to play…"

Jim pointed to the next person on line. "You! Next!"

The gym teacher walked over to Tamiya, who was still standing in the same place, rubbing her neck. "Tamiya, go to the infirmary."

She just nodded her head and jogged to the entrance to the main building.

"From my computers logs, cross-referenced with Aelita's readings, I've determined that XANA's using the electrical transformers on the power lines to drain power dramatically from anywhere it's affected."

The gang was in the factory, and Odd stared at Jeremy, baffled at what he just said-understanding only a little-and asked, "What's being affected right now?"

"So far the northern hemisphere."

Yumi almost laughed. "That's a little over our heads, don't you think?"

Ulrich leaned forward. "What does it do to us?"

Jeremy shook his head gravely. "Keeps us from reaching REM sleep. That means rapid-eye-movement. The time when we actually sleep and regain our strength is when we dream. That's when there's REM sleep. We're not getting it because the power-lines are draining sleep, making us tired and-"

Ulrich raised his voice in daunting recognition. "Draining our judgment and sense of reality!" Yumi crossed her arms. "That would explain the loss of power, too."

Jeremy nodded. "The power is being drained into the transformers before we can utilize it."

Yumi seemed confused. "Where is it being drained?"

Jeremy moved back in his chair. "That's just it. After the transformer gets full, it transfers its energy to the wires, overflowing and getting neutralized in the rubber of the power lines."

Ulrich put out his hands in question. "Can't the authorities handle cutting down the electricity that gets to the transformers?" Jeremy shook his head. "The authorities don't even know about this."

Odd smiled. "Well at least the hallucinations haven't happened on us!"

Jeremy shook his head again. "They may have already."" 


	5. Virtualization

"I'm sending you to the ice region. That's where XANA's activated the tower.

Aelita nodded to Jeremy. "I'll be waiting."

"Transfer, Ulrich."

Jeremy pressed a few buttons as wind began whipping up in the scanner towards Ulrich. "Transfer, Odd. Transfer, Yumi."

Aelita's image came up on the screen as Jeremy continued. "Scanner."

Odd, Ulrich and Yumi began traveling up the scanner.

Jeremy pressed return.

"Virtualization!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Ulrich vision returned to him as he dropped into the region…

Nothing.

"Ahhhh!" Ulrich watched shocked as a million numbers rushed past him. He looked behind himself and could see no sign of Yumi or Odd.

Plop!

He landed on some sort of platform. Pain rushed through his virtual body as he got up slowly and excruciatingly. He groaned. "Jeremy, what happened?"

"Uhhh… I think you landed on a data transfer jam."

Ulrich looked around him. All he saw was millions of numbers traveling up and down at amazing velocities. "What to you mean? I'm in between towers on a blockage?"

Jeremy nodded. "Yes, right after I virtualized you XANA randomized the coordinates." His voice sounded emotionally unstable.

Ulrich stopped turning his head suddenly. "Jeremy, where are the others?"

No answer.

"Jeremy?"

"Connection Lost." Ulrich heard the computer say in its dispassionate voice.

"Oh no."

Ulrich jumped off, hoping he'd travel to the next tower, as he did.

"I've got to find Odd and Yumi…" He thought to himself.

Ulrich ran through the tower walls to find the region…

"Desert!" Odd looked around bewildered. "I thought we were going to the ice region! Yumi, do you-" Odd looked around with no sign of Yumi or Ulrich. He suddenly heard the sound of mechanical legs behind himself. He turned in place to find himself face to face with a roachster. Odd pulled up his hand, aimed, and was about to shoot when he got hit in the back with a laser.

"Ah!"

Odd flew forward, but landed on his hands and pushed himself skywards. He twisted, shot and exploded one of two crabs. Odd lost his balance at the sight of the crab, and became totally of guard with the crab about five inches from him.

Wrrrrrr!

The crab charged up his gun and was about to fire when he heard a, "Yah," and the crab started sparking. Odd backed away as fast as he could and saw a black form on the crab as it jumped off the crab.

Boom!

The crab exploded as a familiar figure walked towards him.

"Odd? What are you doing here?"

Odd got up and looked at Ulrich. "I could ask the same thing. Where's Yumi?"

Ulrich's eyes widened. "She's not with you?"

Odd crossed his arms. "You mean she's not with you?"

Ulrich spread his arms wide. "No! Jeremy told me XANA randomized our virtualization coordinates!"

Odd uncrossed his arms. "Did he say anything else?"

"No! He just stopped talking and then the computer said the connection was lost!"

Aelita ran to them. "I've been looking all over! Where've you guys been?"

Ulrich and Odd said simultaneously. "We don't know!"

Aelita kinda backed away a little and asked, "Where's Yumi?"

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you haven't seen her either!"

Aelita put her hands on her hips. "Should I have?"

Odd put out his arms in a "come on" gesture. "Well we gotta find her!"

Ulrich shook his head. "No, we have to deactivate the tower. Do you know where it is Aelita?"

"Well yeah, didn't Jeremy tell you?"

"We, lost contact with him."

Aelita looked nervous. "You mean you don't know what happened?"

Odd put his hands down. "Let's just say, connection lost."

Jeremy swung with a metal bar. "I won't let you hurt the scanners XANA!"

A huge knight in black armor swung a sword at Jeremy. They were fighting in the scanner room. The knight struck him down on his knees.

Jeremy was breathing heavily on the ground. "Just kill me XANA. Just do it…"

He didn't feel anything.

Jeremy looked up to find the knight gone.

He went into the elevator, still shaking from the fight. He pressed the lift button.

I didn't go. 


End file.
